Bill C-10 and its dirty little secret

Here's a copy of a letter I just sent off to Senator W. David Angus, Chair of the Senate Committee on Bank, Trade and Commerce.
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March 3, 2008
Senator W. David Angus, Chair, Senate Committee on Bank, Trade and Commerce
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6

Dear Mr. Angus,

I am writing regarding Bill C-10: An Act to amend the Income Tax Act, and specifically section 119 (3) (b) of that Act, which would, in essence, impose a new form of censorship on Canadian creators of film and/or video productions.

Last week saw Canadians celebrating Freedom to Read Week. That fact seems more than a bit ironic in light of the quick action that’s been taken with the above amendment, which clearly threatens the artistic integrity of film and video directors.

The Senate is always portrayed as the place for sober second thought. I can only trust that this will indeed be the case in this instance, and that the Senate will defeat this bill and return it to the House of Commons.

Surely, the Members of the Senate recognize that freedom of expression is essential to the creation of meaningful art, and that the creation of meaningful art is essential to a vibrant culture.

Sincerely,


Heidi Greco
Writer and Editor
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To give you some background, I'm going to quote extensively from a letter sent out by the Executive Director of The Writers' Union of Canada.

She explains the Bill to members of TWUC like this:
"You may have heard about Bill C-10: An Act to amend the Income Tax Act, that was made public last week. This is an Income Tax Act with a twist. One small section of the 50-page Act, section 119 (3) (b), proposes changes to the Income Tax Act that are a peculiar new form of censorship."

“Canadian film or video production certificate” means a certificate issued in respect of a production by the Minister of Canadian Heritage certifying that the production is a Canadian film or video production in respect of which that Minister is satisfied that … (b) public financial support of the production would not be contrary to public policy.” [Bill C-10 section 119 (3) (b)]

"This bill received, on October 29, 2007, first, second and third reading in the House of Commons without debate. It is currently in the second reading stage in the Senate.

"The Writers’ Union of Canada is deeply concerned with conformity to public policy becoming a test for any kind of a tax benefit for artistic productions. The application of this principle to movies is unacceptable and establishes a precedent for similar future repression of book and magazine publishers."

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With luck, this link to a story in the Globe may even still work. Fingers crossed; they are often quick to charge.

I hope you will take a minute to write a note of your own to Senator Angus -- and, if you can, cc it to the rest of the Committee. I am enclosing Senator Angus' email address [anguswd@sen.parl.gc.ca], as well as addresses for the other Members of the Committee [goldsy@sen.parl.gc.ca; bironmi@sen.parl.gc.ca; rokosg@sen.parl.gc.ca; harbm@sen.parl.gc.ca; jaffem@sen.parl.gc.ca; massip@sen.parl.gc.ca; moorew@sen.parl.gc.ca; olived@sen.parl.gc.ca; ringup@sen.parl.gc.ca; tkachd@sen.parl.gc.ca]. For the record, those Members are: Senate Committee on Bank, Trade and Commerce.

Angus, W. David, Chair - C - (Alma - Quebec) anguswd@sen.parl.gc.ca
Goldstein, Yoine, Deputy Chair - Lib. - (Rigaud - Quebec) goldsy@sen.parl.gc.ca
Biron, Michel - Lib. - (Mille Isles - Quebec) bironmi@sen.parl.gc.ca
Eyton, John Trevor - C - (Ontario) rokosg@sen.parl.gc.ca
Harb, Mac - Lib. - (Ontario) harbm@sen.parl.gc.ca
Jaffer, Mobina S.B. - Lib. - (British Columbia) jaffem@sen.parl.gc.ca
Massicotte, Paul J. - Lib. - (De Lanaudière - Quebec) massip@sen.parl.gc.ca
Moore, Wilfred P. - Lib. - (Stanhope St. / South Shore - Nova Scotia) moorew@sen.parl.gc.ca
Oliver, Donald H. - C - (South Shore - Nova Scotia) olived@sen.parl.gc.ca
Ringuette, Pierrette - Lib. - (New Brunswick) ringup@sen.parl.gc.ca
Tkachuk, David - C - (Saskatchewan) tkachd@sen.parl.gc.ca

I did it!

I finished the marathon: two hours water running.



Thanks to everyone who pledged me, I came up with $180 in donations for the Heart and Stroke Foundation. Yay!

With heartbeats to my sponsors:

Tom
George
Lisa
Antoinette
Janet
Arn
Lorraine
Ellen
Rosemary

Gracias!

Let's let pink be the new colour...

...for strong.

Banned Books

Not in Canada, you say? Wrong. Canadian writers from Atwood to Munsch have had their books challenged and pulled from library (and sometimes even bookstore) shelves.

In observation of Freedom to Read Week, many events will take place across the country. Two local ones are:

Wednesday, February 27th, 7 pm at the Bad Dog Bistro (33166 First Avenue, Mission). Come early and eat supper at the site of this annual event.

Saturday afternoon will see an event at the Semiahmoo branch of the Surrey Public Library. This will be held in the lounge on the main floor and starts at 2 pm.

Hoping to see you at one of these!

Kitchen renos, Hoser style

This is certainly turning into a bonding experience. We're moving a wall, rearranging cupboards, getting a different countertop. Yikes!
But yes, we're still speaking -- and even having a pretty good time of it all.

Touching wood, of course. Good thing there's a lot of that here!

It's Heart Month

There's a whole lot more to February than Valentine hearts. It's also Heart and Stroke Month.

To observe this, I plan to participate in a 2-hour marathon. It's not running anyplace in particular -- and not the traditional 26-miler. We'll be doing circles, running in the deep end of the South Surrey/White Rock Indoor Pool.

Feel like pledging some dough for me? Contact me by email or leave a comment so I can get back to you.

Should be fun!

Year of the Rat Tree?

Okay, so that isn't what this is, but I like thinking these fuzzy buds might burst into tiny rats to celebrate the new lunar year.

And if rats aren't your thing, how about calling it the year of the dandeLion? Whichever you choose, Gung Hei Fat Choi!

Last day of the Pig!

So, is this why I've been wanting to nibble all day? And if that's the case, will the Year of the Rat bring any change to my appetite?

Once again, it's Superb Owl time!

And once again, I'm not thinking NFL, but instead, a day to go to the movies.

What do groundhogs know?

If I were going to try to predict spring, I wouldn't look for my shadow. I prefer relying on the height of these daffs. They look to me like a pretty sure sign of a soon-to-come spring. At least I sure hope that's the case!

Too much charity begins at home

B.C. Poet Tim Lander has had his home declared an official 'nuisance' by the city of Nanaimo. Lander's been allowing the homeless to sleep on the floor of his house.

Obviously, there's more to the story than this. Still, this sounds like yet another case where our society's sense of values seem seriously out of whack. I guess this is what happens when one man tries to help address an impossibly huge problem.

And maybe I'm just feeling sensitive to this, as I still can't erase what I saw in my own driveway just the other morning: footprints in the snow around both of our cars, left by someone who appeared to have been looking for a place to sleep.

The Power of Language

The people behind Oback Barama have hired themselves some darn smart writers. The slogan they've created for their candidate is one heckuva powerful mantra. Talk about three loaded words.

YES -- Now there's a positive message if ever there was one. No more 'no' to anything as a rallying cry. He's giving the people the opportunity to say 'yes.'

WE -- What word better unifies the people? There's no second-person 'you' in his slogan; this is all about working together.

CAN -- The choice of verb is the simplest of the many words that mean enablement, that signify potential.

Three little words, eight little letters... I expect we're going to be hearing this slogan a lot: Yes, we can.

If you close your eyes and listen to him saying it, you might even think for a minute that you're hearing Martin Luther King. Do you suppose that could be something the handlers have been working on too?

Josh Brolin as George Bush?

And Dubya at that? He'll have to do it with gesture and word. The actor who was a ringer, right down to the pointy chin, went and died way too soon. Yep, Heath Ledger.

The Four Horsemen Project

As part of this year's PuSH Festival, Toronto's independent theatre company, Volcano, performed its tribute to the poets who in 1970 formed the sound poetry group, the Four Horsemen. The ensemble consisted of Paul Dutton, Steve McCaffery, Rafael Barreto-Rivera and bp nichol.

The festival performance, a combination of dance and vocal work, complemented by media projections, is built around bp nichol's two-and-a-half-minute 'pome poem' (definitely worth clicking on and listening to).

Choreographed by Kate Alton, the cast features Jennifer Dahl, Graham McKelvie, Naoko Murakoshi and Sarah Sanford. By turns, they had the audience laughing, gasping, humming along -- and best of all, thinking -- about what poetry is, what it can or should do, and about just how delightful pure sound can be.

Besides showing in Victoria and Vancouver, The Four Horsemen Project has been invited to Fringe Festivals in both Dublin and Edinburgh. Worth buying a ticket for when it comes around again, which it's bound to.

What is wrong with people?

And by people, I can only mean all of us.

There's the story of a woman on the freeway who stoppped, undressed herself and her niece and nephew, then picked up the kids and walked into traffic -- where all of them were killed.

When a woman, along with a four- and a five-year old stand beside the freeway in states of undress, why doesn't anyone stop and ask 'How can I help?'

Wintry supper

Potatoes and parsnips cooked slowly with sauerkraut. A batch of fresh chicken livers and tiny chicken hearts. Baked in the oven with onions and garlic, then broiled for a bit of brown.

Served with freshly made homous on the side. A salad of spinach and tomatoes, chunks of feta.

Comfort on a bitterly cold January night. Yes.

The art of collage

The newest show at the local Arts Council Gallery is a series of collage works by Karen Kroeker. Here she is, offering an explanation of the origins and history of collage.

Many of Kroeker's works include an image of a woman who I thought might be Virginia Woolf. It turns out the figure is a depiction of herself which Kroeker keeps going back to. Karen offered some explanatory notes on the changing orientation of this figure in an article published in the Peace Arch News.

Poetry Boot Camp

I attended. I wrote. I survived.

Along with Liz Bachinsky, Clint Burnham, Jenn Farrell and Rob Hughes, I sat around a table covered in books and papers -- in the company of Toronto poet Stuart Ross. He led, cajoled, coerced and teased -- in other words, got us all looking at the page in fresh ways.

The only thing missing was an 'I survived PBC' T-shirt. Maybe next time, Stuart?

Winter golf, supremo!

Today was the day the PGA kicked off its season for 2008. Or, should that be 'teed off' its season? And last time I checked, both Weir and Ames were still holding places on the leader board.

Whichever, it was a day for golf at the loveliest of the local courses, Peace Portal.

A couple of birdies, a few bogeys, not quite enough pars. The only eagle was the one that flapped past from the trees on the 14th hole, though he was most impressive.

One of life's mysteries was also solved today: how do George's pants get so muddy when he plays? Besides using a towel to wipe off his clubs, it seems he's developed the habit of using his pantleg as well. Guess it's more convenient than going back to his golf bag each time...

Polar Bear Madness

When it comes to New Year's traditions in White Rock, there are those of us who do and those of us who watch. I prefer to stay bundled up and click photos of those who choose to jump into the water.

Still, this annual event is a great excuse for a walk on the beach (as if anyone needs an excuse) and a fun way to start off the new year.

Happy 2008!